News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-24


life warning against Christianity, cries out
The majesty of the Scriptures amazes me.
Altamont, the notorious infid,l, one woul
think he would have been safe against thi
, deusion of the Christian religion. Oh. nc
J, After talking against Christianity all hi
4 days, in his last hours he cried out: sob
thou blasphemed but most indulgen
4 Lord God, hell itself is refuge
a it hide me from Thy frown." Voltaire, tn,
5, most talented infidel the world ever saw
n writing two hundred and fifty publications
n and the most of them sniteful against Chris
= tianity, himself the most notorious ibertin
7 of the century-one would have thought b
7 | could have been deDende1 ur'On for stead
3 the war against this terrible chimera thi
Q delusion of the GOSPEL But no; in his las
hour he asked for Christian burial, and ask
g that they give him the sacrament of tn
n pend upon these frst-rate infldels-you can
r not depend upon their power to resist th
a great deluSion of Christianity. Thomas
Paine the gol Ct modern ,skeptics; hi.
5 and Boston with great enthusiasm
| Thomas Paine, the paragon of Bible
: haters-ThomaS Paine, about whom his
, brother intidel, William Carver, wrote in a
letter which have at my house, saying that
: he drank a quart of rum a day and was toe
mean and too dishonest to pay for it-Thoni-
as Paine, the a1ored of modern infidelity-
; Thomas Paine who stole another mans wi e
in England and brought her to this land
| Thomas Paine, who was so sOualid and SO
loathesome and so drunken and so prohigate
and so baastly in his habits, sometimes picked
ont of the ditch, sometimes too filthy to b.
picked out-Thomas Paine, one would have
| thought that he could have been depended on
for steadfastness against this great delusion
But no. In his dying hour, he begs the Lord
| Jesus Christ for mercy.
Powerful delusion. all-conuuering delusion
earthquaking deIuston or the Christian re
Zig on. Yea, it goes on, it is so impertineat,
and it is so overbearing, this chimera Of the
Gospel, that having conquered the great
! picture galleries of the world. the old mas
| tiers and the young masters. as showed in a
former sermon, it is not satisfied until it has
conquered the music of the world. Look
over the programme of that ma gnificeEt
musical festival a few years ago in
New York and see what were the
great performances, and learn that the
! greatest of all the subjects were religious
subjects. What was it one night when three
| thousand voices were accom- aned with a
vast number of instruments! "Israel in
/ Egypt" Yes. Beethoven deluded until he
| wrote the High Mass in D. Ma or. HAYDN
deluded with this religion until he wrote the
| Creation Handel delu e | until he wrote
| the oratorios of ''Jephthahn and esther
and saul" AMI "Israel in Egg t." and the
Messiah On the closing night three
| thousand deluded people singing of a deiu-
| sion to eight thousand deluded hearers.
| Yes, this chimera of the Gospel is not sat
| isfied until it goes on and builds itself into
| the most permanent architecture, so it seems
as If the world is never to get rid of it. What
are some of the finest buildings in the world!
St Pauls, st. Peters, the churches and ca
the trails of all ChristendOm. Yes, this i'm
pertinence of the GOSPEL, this vast delUsion
is not satisfied until it projects itself, and in
one year gives, contributes $6,210,010 to
foreign missions, the work of which is to
make ounces and fools on the other side of the
worid-people we have never seen. Deluded
doctorS-two hundred and twenty MUSICIANS
meeting week by week in London, in the
Union Medical Prayer Circle, to worship
GCd. Deluded lawyerS-the late Lord Cairns,
the highest legal authority in England, the
ex-adviSer of the throne, spending his va "a
ton in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to the poor people of Scotland. Frederick
T. Fresinghuysen, once the Secretary of
State of the United States, an old-fashioned
evangelical Christian, an elder in the Re
formed Church Jonn Bright, a deluded
Quaker. Henry Wilson, the Vice-Presidenb
Of the United States, dyinga delude d Metho-
list or CCngregationalist. Earl of kiut re
lying deluded Presbyterian. The canni-
balls in South Sea, the Bushmen OF Terra del
Fuego, the wild men of Australia, putting
down the knives of their cruelty, and cloth
ing themselves in decent apparel-all under
the power of this delusiOn. JudSon, and DOty,
and Abeel, and Camp ell, and VIII am, and
the three Thousand missionaries of the cross
turning their backs on home and civilization
aud comfort, and going out among the Squalor
of heatheniSm to receive it, to save it, to
help it, toiling until they drop into their
graves, dying with no earthly comfort about
them, and going into graves with no appro,
pirate epitaDh, when they might have lived
in this country, and lived for themselves,
and lived luxuriouSly, and been at last put
into brilliant sepulchres What deluio
Yea, this delusion of Christian religion
shows itself in the ia t that it goes to tEose
wbo are in trouble. Now, 1t IS bad enoU h
to cheat a man when he is W i, and when he
is prosperous; but this religion comes to
man when he is k, and saws: ''You will be
well again after while; you are going into
! g. land where there are no coughs and no
pleurlS1eS and no consumptinnS and no
languiShing: take courage and bear up"
Yea, this awful chimera Of the Gospel comes
to the poor and it says to them: ~ on
are on your way to vast estates and to
dividends always declarable." This delusion
of Christianity comes t. the bereft, and it
talks of reunion before the throne and of the
ceS alton of all sorrow. And then to show
that this delusion will stop at absolutely
nothing, 1t goes to the dying bed ana Nils the
man with anticipatiOnS. How much better
it would be to have him die without any more
hope than swine ami rats and snakes. That
is all Nothing more left him. He will never
know anything again. Shovel him under!
The soul IS only superior part Of the body
and when the body dsintegrates the soul dis,
integrates. Annihilation, vacancy, everlast-
ing blank, obiteration. Why not present
all that beautiful doctrine to the dying, i'll
stead of coming with this hoax, this swindle
of the Christian religion, and filling the dy-
ing man WITH anticipatons of another life
until some in the last hour have clapped
thzir hands, and some have shouCed.
and some have sung, and some
have been 50 overweight with joy they
could only look ecstatic. Palace gates open
ing, they thought; diamond coroLets flash
ing. hands reckoning, orchestraS sounding.
Little children dying, actually believing they
saw their DEF arte1 parents, SO that, although
the little children had been so weak and fee
be and sick for weeks they could not turn
on the dying pillow, at the last, in Tar-
oxsYm OF rapture uncomfortable. they SD ang
to their feet, and shouted: "Mother, catch
me, am c1mingln
And to show the immensely of this delu-
sion, this awful swindle of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, open hospital and bring into
that hospital the death-bedS of a great many
Christian people, and 1 take you by the hand
this morning, and walk up and down the
wards of that hospital, and l ask a few
questions: dying stephen, what have you
TO say" Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. u
Dying John Wesley, what have you to
says" The best of all is, God is with us.
dying Edward Payson. what have Won to
say" 81 float in a sea of glory" dying
Johu Bradford, what have you to say!s
If there be any way of going to Heaven on
horseback, or in fiery chariot, it is this"
Dying Neander, what have you to says" Il
am gong to sleep now-good might" ''Dy-
ing Mrs Florence Foster, what have you to |
say" "a pilgrim in the valley, but the |
mountain-tOps are all agleam from peak to
peak" dying Alexander Mathar, what |
baVe you to sayf" THE Lord who has taken |
care of me fifty years, will not cast me OF |
now; glory be to God and to the lamb
Amen, amen, amen, amenln Dying John |
Powson, after preaching the Gospel so many
years, what have you to say!" Ny death bed |
is a bed of roses. " Dying Doctor Thomas
Scott, what have you to say" "This is
Heaven begun" dying soldier in the last
war, what Lave you to say!' "Boys, am
going to the front" "Dying telegraph ope-
rator on the battlefield of Virginia, what
have you to sayl' 1.-The wires are all laid,
and the poles are up from Stony Point t.
headquarters" dying Paul, what have you
to says" 81 am now ready to be offered and
the time of my departure IS at hand: | have
fought the good fight, have finished my
course, / have kept the faith. o Death,
where is thy stings o Grave, where
is thy victory! Thanks be unto God wao
Giveth lis the victory through our Lord .Tesus
Christ" o, my Lord, my God, what a de-
fusion, what glorious deiusionl Submerge
me with it, fill my eyes and ears with it, put
1t under my dying head for piIlow-this de-
luSlon-Spread it over me for q canopy, put
1t underneath me for an outspread wing roll
IL over me in ocean suTges ten thousand
iathoms deepl o, if infidelity and if atheism,
and if humiliation are a reality. and the
Christian religion is delusion, give me the
delusion?
The strong conclusion of every man and
woman in the house is that Christianity pro-
ducing such grand results cannot be a delu-
sion. A lie, cheat swlndie, an hal u"ina-
ton cannot launch such glory of the centu-
ries. Your logic and your common sense con- |